Out of a wild curiousity, I've been looking recently at information on the old wheel-lock muskets. Most of what I've read so far says they were insanely expensive for the time, and unreliable and persnickety to boot. Does anyone out there have some real life experience with the things to verify the latter?

Also, I remember hearing at one point they were banned in one kingdom or another, effectively halting firearms development for some years before someone finally came up with that delight of modern engineering, the flintlock. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name or country. Can anyone verify this?